Brian,
Thanks for letting the fine people on the ground in Iraq get their viewpoints heard. If they believe it can be done, then it can, no matter what the armchair generals or pundits may think. Stay safe!

Brian, believe me, you will learn a lot and have a different perspective on Iraq at the end of your journey. I returned from a tour nearly 9 months ago. I was near Tikrit, assigned to both the Third Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne. One thing to keep in mind is perspective of the soldier. Especially as it deals with living conditions and threat level. There are certain levels of military bases, based on those aspects. Camp Victory is one level below being stationed in Kuwait. They have salsa dance lessons, milk shake machines and swimming pools. In contrast, most soldiers are on bases where you cannot run outside due to mortar fire. My tour required us to wear flak vests, helmets and carry ammo / weapons at anytime outside a building. When we had leaders go to Camp Victory, the Victory crew looked at them with strange looks due to them wearing combat gear on base. We didn't know any better. Victory seemed like the land of OZ. On the other end of the spectrum are the patrol bases. We had a few and they do still exist. These bases have soldiers living without showers and dining halls. The soldiers I knew were trucked every few days to another base for shower facilities. They had their hot meals delivered by ground convoy. The delivery of "hot pockets" was the best time of the week. Try that for an entire year. They did. My point is simply to maintain the soldiers perspective as you are taken from base to base. Camp Victory is not the norm and most of us outside Baghdad looked at it not with jealousy but rather embarrassment due to the perception that they had life easier. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Chris (Army Captain)

PS. Since our R&R program was suspended during our tour, if a soldier earned a short break, we would send them to Camp Victory to "live high on the hog", without the mortar fire or explosions.

Brian, your off to a good start. I contemplate whether the dining cuisine of our troops, although a fantastic human interest story, has the depth of what is going on and why you are there. Please maximize your efforts. getting high ranking military quotes is not going to balance the story. Please attempt to obtain interviews with Iraqi officials on all three sides as well as the man on the street. That is a tall request to most, I am aware, but Brian's casts a long shadow himself. We are all paying close attention to everyone's posts and reports. Please keep them coming as often as possible. The duty Brian and the team are doing is of no less significance than when Ben Franklin cranked up his press. PS, Brian what would you do without Subrata?

I watched your report. While I am hoping continually for the safety of all the troops, as I am sure you are, it is obvious that you are really "embedded" there just as earlier permitted reporters were. It is also obvious that most of the military who are there are supportive of being there, to do otherwise would be counter to their training in the military which submits them to the will of the commander in chief. While we realize that enthusiasm for a mission is part of the military training, please do not confuse that apparent solidarity for legitimacy of purpose in being there nor in staying there,nor for progress in obtaining the goal of getting the Iraqis to stand up so we can stand down. It is painfully obvious that while we may gain one street or one block, we lose another, and that unless we are there for all time, this is a delaying pattern that will not improve the Iraqis ability to stand up nor to appreciate a democracy, while it will dramatically increase the loss of American lives. It would be appreciated if your coverage continued to show the troops' own support of their mission, but that it be characterized as what it is - their duty, and not an unbiased opinion poll. We need to get out of Iraq, and not fuel the non-reality-based idea that the longer we stay and the harder we fight, we can undo more than a thousand years of animosity among very different cultural groups who have never gotten along except under the hand of a dictator. We need objectivity from a correspondent of your stature and not more of the administration-sanctioned embedded-reporter patter. Thanks for presenting in the future an objective view of what the Iraqis think is going on. We know, all too well, from our administration here, that their line is stay the course. It would be better reporting to focus on the Iraqi situation and not the military we have sent there on a mission. Thank you.

Brian -

As you read through the messages on this blog, it is readily apparent that we feel as though we really have a family member on the scene at Camp Victory. That is a great credit to you and your staff - you personalize the NBC nightly news without any loss in scope, veracity or professionalism. i.e. showing the various 'fast food' outlets in the camp actually provides solice for soldiers' family members who know that those 'amenties' loom large in keeping Camp Victory as homelike as possible.

So, keep on 'being Brian'. You are sending home the most varied and remarkably personal reports imaginable.

And of course, stay safe.

Great job Brian and team! But I need to ask, what is the 'job'? I thought it was to catch Bin Laden? And weren't most of the 9/11 culprits Saudis? Is the job now to help all in the world that suffer from war and violence or only areas where oil or other resources are? The soldiers are great. But the leaders need to answer to everyone.

Brian,

It's wonderful that you are here in Baghdad at Camp Victory to report on many thing - the surge being one. I've noticed that you have shied away from pointing out that the major player in this buildup pertaining to ensuring that the soldiers arrive to a comfortable bed, shower, and dinning facility is KBR. Maybe it's politically incorrect to broach this subject but the truth is we have worked long hours in a multitude of planning meetings and are literally moving the world to get things ready and while doing this ensuring that troops that are here as also taken careof. I imagine that the place you sleep the water you use to shower with and the food you eat is all made possible because KBR is in Iraq.

Brian ...

You mentioned last week that you sometimes felt a bit guilty on the days when you don't have the time to make a long post to your blog. Well, there have been times, on the days when you mention that it's been a very busy day, when I've felt guilty because you've taken the time from all you have to do to make your daily post for me to read. This would be one of those days when I feel guilty. Thank you so much for taking the time after the broadcast to make your daily post. You have made me feel cold just reading that you're cold, since I'm sure as one from the Northeast, you're used to being cold (I, on the other hand, begin shivering when the temps go below 60 degrees.) I hope you have warmed up some, and that the water in your water bottles don't freeze after all you had to go through to get them. Continue to take care.

Mr. Williams, First of all I appreciate your effort in submitting your Daily Nightly blog to the viewers. Try to keep warm, drink plenty of hot coffee and get enough sleep! When you spoke to some of the soldiers within Camp Victory they told you of their duty to continue to get the job completed. Richard's report still shows such heavy violence in so many areas. One wonders if these two religous groups will ever be capable of occupying the same region. He spoke of having even more troops added to the region. I hope that all this extra military will have an affect on quelling the sectarian violence. This effort needs to go well and keep going well for everyones future. And seeing as how I live in the south I agree with the statement from Scarlett O' Hara " After all tomorrow is another day". Thank you Brian and Richard for your suberb reporting. And keep safe and warm!

LOVE YOU BRIAN,
Think you are one of a very few without a pure negative outlook on a dismal situation. Keep up the positive, accurate approach. Thanks, Phyllis

Hope you're still sleeping as I write this. I appreciated the balanced reporting today, particularly the interviews with the solders, while I admire the commitment so many showed, it was hard not to agree with the young man who simply had seen enough. I know you don't do op-ed pieces. I heard your comments to Tim Russert about Walter Conkrite's famous documentary, that any journalist only gets one shot in a lifetime. Still, once you safely return I would be deeply interested in your commentary on the current state of the war, opinions included. Perhaps this blog would be the best place for that.
As always, to you and the rest of your crew...Godspeed

As eerie as it was to watch US marines ‘eagerly’ opting to sit in Saddam’s chairs for a quick photo opt after the invasion, so too were the headlines on MSNBC today, which had a photo of Lewis “the felon” Libby smugly smiling right next to the day’s other major headline “Scores of Iraqi pilgrims massacred.” … a connection that should be painfully obvious to anyone on this side of a catatonic state. It’s been certainly honorable and indeed quite commendable to hear so many US soldiers saying how much they wish to stay to help Iraqis! Trying to help has typically always been an “American” attribute. Unfortunately, when you don’t even know the true intensions of the criminalistic administration still in charge (who are seemingly in want of the existing chaos as a manipulative excuse to implicate Iran), the best option remains to divide the country into separate states, not force it to hold together just to prevent Shiites from joining Iran. If democracy is what we really espouse, than who are we to argue the intensions of the Shia people? I wish them the best of luck on whatever path “THEY” choose!

Thanks again for your reporting Brian! Stay safe.

I might as well have been stamped with a military ID card on my backside as I was born into the military,raised,married and now retired.But what bothers me the most is why are we more noticed,more taken care of and our hospitals need upgraded, only because there is a war? We have ALWAYS been important! Why does it take a war to notice us? Brian Williams, you are great. Thank-you

A good question to ask Petraeus is are we in a never-ending "whack a mole" scenario where we show up in Baghdad so the Mehdi Army and the Sunni's attack civilians and U.S. troops elsewhere, ad nauseum, with continued violence and Iraqi and US deaths but without ever putting the onus on the Iraqi's to solve their internal problems. I would rather have Petraeus use his brains on rooting out al qaeda (our true enemy) and let internal pressure force a political solution to Sunni/Shia conflicts without our troops getting killed/wounded trying to referee. Force the Iraqi Sunni's to choose between foreign al qaeda and a political position in Iraq and the Shia to compromise on oil and other power sharing issues without big brother (US military troops) stepping in and taking the pressure off.

Mr. Williams,
My son, SGT. Alex Foster, is stationed at Camp Victory. Alex is a 24 year old supply sgt. from Knoxville, TN. He is fits the profile of the typical soldier---quiet and dedicated, played high school football, worked after school to earn his money to buy a pick-up truck, loves his country. I hope you will get to meet my amazing son. I sent the army a 20 year old "child" for his basic training and the army sent back a man. Alex has an amazing mind for detail, especially for those things he loves. If there is anything you want to know about SEC football, he is your guy. He knows more stats about the SEC and its history than anyone around. He also dearly loves the Atlanta Falcons, the Atlanta Braves, you name it, he loves it.
Again, if you get the opportunity, I think you would be proud to meet my boy. He is with the 10th Mtn. Division out of Fort Drum, NY. He has been in Baghdad since August 10. And if you do see him, please give him a big hug from his momma.
Debbie Foster, English teacher at Halls High School and the mother of an American soldier.

Brian,

Stay safe and come home soon! A simple question..sorry if it sounds silly, but how do you keep your beautiful blue shirts clean over there?